Understanding Connecticut’s Wildlife

Tracy Rittenhouse, assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, knows a thing or two about black bears (Ursus americanus americanus). She also knows about species as diverse as Eastern and New England cottontails, spotted salamanders, woodcock, and white-tailed deer, among others.

… The fact that there are black bears roaming around suburban back yards is not necessarily surprising, Rittenhouse says, given their adaptable nature. The white-tailed deer population is flourishing in the state for similar reasons. On the one hand, these animals thrive as they feed on acorns from oak trees that are now reaching maturity, but they are also more than willing to sample the content of bird feeders or ornamental flowers and shrubs in the cultivated suburban yards that now punctuate the forests of Connecticut.